Enter the Chilling Cat Coliseum.

Reviewed on Xbox 360

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April 4, 2013

The Behemoth’s 2D platformer BattleBlock Theater is finally here. The quirky humor and attention to detail found in previous Behemoth games Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers returns in full force, but this time around a lack of gameplay focus brings down the overall package. Anyone can sit down and enjoy BattleBlock Theater, but few will fall in love with it.

All Behemoth games have featured laughs, usually in the form of sight-gags and others jokes lurking beneath the surface. Battleblock Theater brings this humor to the forefront, and it successfully permeates the entire experience – from the narrator’s manic opening monologue to the multiple songs that play over the end credits. The writing mixes poop jokes with pop-culture references, punctuated by higher-brow, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it self-referential humor. Between-world cutscenes in most platformers are good opportunities to get up and grab a snack. Here, they’re a highlight.

When your ship full of friends (BBT makes sure to point out that this is a true "friend ship," har har) crashes onto an island jail run by intelligent cat guards, your only choice is to platform through 80+ levels for their feline amusement. It sounds crazy, written out... but it works. The Behemoth fully commits to the premise and has a ton of fun with it. Balls of yarn hidden in each stage can be redeemed in a prison black market for power-ups. The narrator promises “sandpaper kisses” for doing well.

You command your customizable prisoner with standard platforming controls – jump, double-jump, wall-jump… nothing out of the ordinary. Everything feels snappy and responsive, and I rarely felt like the controls betrayed me and caused my death, even in the hairiest segments. But BattleBlock Theater’s moment-to-moment movement doesn’t compare favorably to recent 2D platforming greats like Super Meat Boy. Movement is a little stiffer, the physics a little less intuitive.

The simple hand-to-hand combat system is more disappointing. You can dispatch enemies (or fellow players in multiplayer) with simple punches, kicks, and special attacks, but it lacks the precision found in the jumping. With no real attack priority, combat rapidly devolves into random button-mashing. Luckily, the bulk of the single-player campaign focuses on spot-on jumps and not enemy cat combat.

Horse riding... BattleBlock Theater style.

BattleBlock Theater’s wildly inventive stage design is undoubtedly its greatest draw. It offers up some of the most clever, satisfying, and varied 2D platforming in years. Eight worlds are loosely sorted into gameplay themes, each stage building and tweaking ideas established in the previous one. My favorite set of stages are all designed to force two runs – once with a (relatively) easier set of challenges, and then a second time after hitting a trigger to activate lasers, disappearing blocks, roving saw blades, or some other added bit of trickiness. No idea is used twice; if an idea does repeat it’s sufficiently escalated to really put your platforming skills to the test.

Stages alternate between pure Super Meat Boy-style skill and puzzle-platforming ala Braid or Toki Tori – sometimes within a few moments of each other. The variety is welcome and well-executed, and does a great job of propelling you from stage to stage. But the platforming feels better in other games, and the puzzling is lacking a hook like Braid’s time mechanics – it’s mostly pushing blocks.

BattleBlock Theater doubles down on its jack-of-all-trades nature in its sheer ridiculous size. This is a truly gigantic game, guaranteed to keep completionists busy for literally dozens of hours. After clearing the seven- or eight-hour campaign, you still have 24 tossed-in-just-because bonus stages (three per world) to run through. Each stage also has a gold-medal time and eight hidden collectibles, all of which are needed for the coveted A++ score. These doodads aren’t afterthoughts, either, as most are hidden behind clever mini-puzzles or optional platforming sections. After all that’s done, true masochists can do it all again on Insane Mode – a difficulty that removes the generously placed mid-stage checkpoints. Whew!

This would already be an incredible amount of content, but The Behemoth decided to throw in the kitchen sink while they were at it. A complete set of level-authoring tools is also included, letting anyone create and share their own custom creations. Curated playlists of the best fan-made levels are promised for months to come.

And that's just the single-player portion. BattleBlock Theater also includes a robust collection of cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes via local play or Xbox Live Arcade. Multiplayer, especially the seven competitive Arena modes, doesn’t ever feel like more than an added-on curiosity, though. I enjoyed the frantic fun of knocking opponents off my turf in King of the Hill, but the iffy combat controls make it unlikely that these modes will be more than one-and-done diversions. Some of the other platforming-centered multiplayer options, such as level races, feel like they have much more potential for longer-term fun.

BattleBlock Theater Wiki

The Verdict

BattleBlock Theater’s lack of focus keeps it from being a true XBLA great, but this platformer still kept a smile on my face from beginning to end. Extremely clever and inventive stage design, a well-honed difficulty curve, and wealth of extras and bonuses make it another winner for The Behemoth. Who knew keeping cats entertained could be so harrowing, and so fun?